on the one hand you could argue that president obama, who wanted a big deal, boehner wanted a big deal, came up with at much as $3 trillion in spending cuts, several hundred billion in revenue increases to balance that. you had the republicans led by eric cantor saying not one dollar in tax hikes. is it hard to assess whether you have one strong faction of the republican party holding up a deal? >> remember when the "the new york times" and "the washington post" that boehner and obama weren't working on a big, grand compromise. >> right. >> "the new york times" talked about the tax hike part of it. t"the washington post" talked about cuts to social security and medicare that obama was willing to go along with. the first stories were all about democrats screaming bloody murder about, you know, no way are they going to go along, congressional democrats, go along with cuts to meds care and social security even if the president wants it. then boehner walked out on the big deal and said no we're not going to do it. my point is there is clearly blame on both sides, and much of the focus righ